Bulgaria to extradite French terrorist suspect

HASKOVO, Bulgaria (AP) — A French national with alleged links to one of the brothers who carried out the terror attack against French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo agreed Friday to be extradited to France.

A Bulgarian district court decided to extradite 29-year-old Fritz-Joly Joachin to his home country.

The judge, Stratimir Dimitrov, asked Joachin in the court in Haskovo in southern Bulgaria whether he agreed to be extradited and received a positive answer. The defendant now has three days to decide whether to uphold his decision.

Joachin's defense lawyer, Radi Radev, told the AP that his client will uphold his decision to be extradited and wants to clear his image before a French court as soon as possible.

Bulgarian police arrested Joachin on Jan. 1 at a Bulgarian-Turkish border crossing on a European arrest warrant issued by French prosecutors who alleged that he had abducted his three-year-old son and was likely to take him to Syria.

In the wake of the attacks in Paris, a second European arrest warrant was issued against him, charging him with participation in an organized crime group with terrorist aim and links to a network organizing the transfer of volunteers to fight with extremists in Syria.